A History of Major Bitcoin Crashes

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Bitcoin is a widely used digital currency. It is mined, stored and transferred electronically. The idea of Bitcoin was proposed by a genius programmer Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin is a truly decentralized cryptocurrency – free from the influence of governments and central banks. It can be transferred hassle-free without any cost.

Bitcoin Advantages

Bitcoin has several advantages over traditional currencies. First, no government or bank controls mining of Bitcoins – hence it is free from political influence and currency wars. Second, its maximum mining is capped to a certain number. It is a very big advantage, particularly from the inflation-controlling standpoint. Third, Bitcoins offer total privacy, i.e. no one can find out how many Bitcoins you own in different Bitcoin addresses. Fourth, Bitcoins are cost effective. They can be transferred free of cost in real-time as opposed to banks that take days and weeks for international remittances along with heavy charges. These are a few among a long list of advantages associated with the use of Bitcoins.

Bitcoin History

Bitcoin’s brief history is fully of ups and downs. We will try to list and explain all major events with the help of an infographic.

The history of Bitcoin starts from January 3, 2009, when the blockchain (a digital ledger that records all Bitcoin transactions) was officially launched. In February 2011, for the first time ever, Bitcoin achieved parity with the American dollar. On June 19, 2011, Bitcoin suffered a $3 decrease in value within minutes, plunging the price of cryptocurrency to less than $16 amid Mt. Gox hacking. A similar incident happened again on February 11, 2012, when Bitcoin nosedived by $2 to almost $4 after Paxum stopped accepting Bitcoin.

On August 17, 2012, Bitcoin plunged $3 to less than $11 after Pirateat40 stopped accepting Bitcoin payments. Another crash happened on April 10, 2013, when Bitcoin plunged $60 to just $122 as increased trading volume disrupted Mt. Gox servers. The above infographic effectively describes all notable events relating to Bitcoins.